Oudh Batavia

This is a beautifully dry clove, cinnamon & nutmeg combo over completely unoffensive ouds, married with a remarkably enjoyable lemongrass... For fans of these notes like myself, you really must sample this! It's hard to stop sniffing yourself & you just want to go back to it over & over again. I own & really enjoy Amouage Bracken Man for its clove, but the dryness here brings it across even better with Oudh Batavia. I've sampled 8 TRNP scents today & must say I'm quite impressed. While I'd consider the line mostly unisex, it's an easy call on the more assertive standouts I tried, for the guys: Oudh Batavia, The Path, Magus & Zeeba... all awesome. They'd all work for women, don't get me wrong, but they might be a bit on the adventurous side for some. Hats off to Teone... Well done!

This fragrance makes me feel I must tell my story of leaving the fragrance world for 3 years then recently coming back. After leaving fragrances, I got into dark, avant-garde fashion. AKA Rick Owens, Yohji Yamamoto (my true fashion love), Julius, etc. Then after I already went way down the rabbit hole in terms of very niche, expensive fashion, I delved into brands like Guidi, A1923 & Carol Christian Poell. These very artisanal clothing brands that utilize very rarely known materials like horse leather and other kinds of leather not commonly found, and also have very specific, off-beat styles that some may say it looks like "hobo clothing", yet running at prices in the thousands for a pair of shoes. Coming back to the fragrance world, I definitely wanted to experience brands I never really looked at. As we all know, you have your mainstream and your niche, but niche is such an umbrella term that most people probably look at brands like Xejoff, Amouage & Roja Dove and obviously say they're niche. But then you go into the artisanal category, and just like clothing, it opens up a new door of experiences. These artisanal brands are rarely restricted in terms of ingredient quality and/or organizations like IFRA and the like, and while it causes them to be distributed in only very specific places, it's their desire to use the best ingredients possible that allows them to truly convey whatever message they desire. (Brands like Bortnikoff, Areej Le Dore, etc) TRNP definitely shows that facet in the naturals category, and Oudh Batavia is one fine, well-balanced fragrance that I ended up splurging for a bottle. The fragrance starts off very strongly with a mixture of lemongrass along with cloves and an almost mentholated smell (sort of like Vicks Vapor Rub), I assume the oud mixtures have something to do with this. The smell is extremely smooth, and as it dries, more of the cinnamon comes out along with the vanilla/benzoin, giving off a sweetly spiced amber. Throughout the duration as well there are peeks of burning firewood, I imagine oud has something to do with this, and it is an exceptionally nice touch to the scent. I am not skilled with different oud types and scents, but my understanding is one of the ouds are dark and smoky, whereas the other one is lightly woody. The oud notes ground this fragrance and I believe are more foundational versus a focal point of the fragrance. I can't at all compare this to Batavia since I never smelled that one but based on reviews of it, these are most likely siblings. If you love amber fragrances and want a natural amber paired with some amazingly high-quality oud, this is a 100% winner. As an amber lover it won me from the beginning until the end. Longevity is great as expected for an amber fragrance, projection average, not too potent, just the right amount.